Matt Hancock is such a donkey

[Polly02]

Listening to him now on Radio 4 trying to big up what government is doing. Turning negatives into crazy unbelievable positives.

Who does he think he’s kidding?

[middleager]

He's not fooling me.

I realised early on he was a donkey.

He was like a child listening to Andy Burnham's suggestion on Question Time that the govt may want to get private hospital facilities on board.

A week later Hancock announced that partnership as his own initiative.

He's pedestrian.

[Polly02]

Now he’s trying to convince us that he’s given us an exit plan.

Oh. Now he’s been caught out. Changed his tact. Blithering and blathering. Getting defensive. We’ve got to keep the public safe is his only get out.

[billysboy]

thank god the majority of the country didnt vote Labour as this would have been an absoloute shit show by now

[DianaT1969]

I disagree. He wasn't in position long. Like everyone, he wasn't prepared for this crisis and wasn't personally responsible for past underfunding and unpreparedness for a pandemic (that's a joint party responsibility). He is part of a team sourcing PPE and tests. I notice the Daily Mail have had their knives out for him for weeks. Not posh enough for them?

[Babdoc]

He certainly doesn’t present well on tv. He struggles to speak fluently and gives the impression of not being very bright.
I think part of the problem is he is overthinking everything before he says it, desperate to stick to the party line and not say anything that could be twisted or misconstrued by the press. If he just relaxed and spoke normally he would probably come across better.
But hey, it’s easy to criticise from one’s sofa!
How many of us would perform any better, after exhausting briefings, endless paperwork, intense pressure and public scrutiny and the knowledge that people will die if you make the wrong decisions?

[runrunrunrunt]

thank god the majority of the country didnt vote Labour as this would have been an absoloute shit show by now

Here we go 🙄 your psychic abilities are astounding! Do you do parties?

[DianaT1969]

Also, Scotland's 'exit plan' was hardly detailed or rocket science 😳. Phased end to lockdown. Wow! Who could have predicted that??

[sanealaddin]

I wouldn't want to do his job for all the tea in China. He's been thrust into a position no-one predicted and I think he is doing his best. I don't agree with everything the government is doing, but he's not doing this for fun.

So easy to sit on your sofa and call someone a donkey.

[HRH2020]

He's obviously been told don't do anything rash until the boss gets back (so he can take the glory of the restriction easing revelations). I think he's not the most competent but he is clearly trying to help.

[user1471448556]

There’s always someone coming on with ‘Thank God Labour didn’t get in’ ... to be frank, pretty much anyone could have done a better job that these Tories right now - and more to the point, this is irrelevant. If you want to compare, why not compare our gov’s performance to Germany’s or New Zealand’s or Iceland’s rather than to some fictional situation. And back to Hancock - he isn’t terrible (that’s not saying much with this gov) BUT I’m sick of his lies - ‘we’ve ordered ppe from Turkey’ (truth - I haven’t done it yet - I will, though), ‘there isn’t the demand for test’ (truth - you’re expecting health workers living in Oxford to go to Twickenham for tests - they’re a bit busy, you know, working ... a drive to Twickenham would be tricky to fit in ... and that’s if they have a car and feel well enough for the journey’, we’re following the science on masks (truth - there is consensus that if everyone wore won there would be reduced transmission - but we don’t have enough masks for hcps let along joe bloggs)

[MarginalGain]

Also, Scotland's 'exit plan' was hardly detailed or rocket science 😳. Phased end to lockdown. Wow! Who could have predicted that??

I don't think it was her plan that was so earthshaking (it wasn't) but rather her decision to talk about it.

I really don't know what to think about Hancock. I think he's been completely useless, but equally I expect he doesn't have a great deal of autonomy.

He's certainly not a gifted speaker.

[Handiies]

Thats insulating to do donkeys!

Is labour got in I'm sure they would be way better than this lot!

[AJPTaylor]

Well we will never know whether Labour would have done different/better.
There will be plenty of time for reckoning and there will be no winners in any event. I do hope though that there will not be people scapegoated for decisions they had to make without and precedent to guide them. I have never voted Tory and never will and I do think they have a lot to answer for but also think that fairness needs to come into it.

[Miriel]

It irritates me immensely that whenever he's asked a question about the process for leaving lockdown - how it will be done - he treats it as a question about when it will be done and waffles on about it being too soon and about his five pillars indicating the right time.

[RufustheLanglovingreindeer]

There’s always someone coming on with ‘Thank God Labour didn’t get in

Its actually pathetic

I’d quite like people to come on and explain what they think The government is doing and give positives

But nah

[RufustheLanglovingreindeer]

Well we will never know whether Labour would have done different/better

Absolutely

[flowerycurtain]

Jeez. The man is working incredibly hard under unimaginable stress during the worst time in our country since ww2. Nobody but nobody could excel under those circumstances.

Disagree with his policies by all means but the personal attack on a man trying his best is a bit harsh.

#be kind and all that.

[TeddyIsaHe]

Be kind? To a tory? Give over.

[Ontheblackhill]

I like him. I think he is a genuine person trying to do his best. Yes he was blindsided by the pandemic. We have had three threatened pandemics in twenty years and all proved to be nothing to worry about so, just like france and Spain the UK was slow off the starting block. I think community transmission rates are too low currently to warrant 100000 tests a day in addition to there not being enough centres but those are increasing. There is only so quickly that a large beast like the government can move. I would want his job for all the tea in China . Obviously we haven't got enough masks and clearly they help reducing transmission so make your own , people!

[The80sweregreat]

Who knows if Labour would have been any good or not? Nobody knows at all. I do hate it when people say this as we just don't know.
I think Matt Hancock is out of his depth but anyone would be in this situation and I believe his just a whipping boy for everyone else who are also floundering in the dark.
Plus most of his colleagues are nasty back stabbers who I wouldn't trust at all. I feel a bit sorry for him and I rarely say that about any conservative minister. Regardless of their politics they are still human beings and none of us are perfect.
It hasn't been handled well but it's certainly been a learning curve on how to handle pandemics or health emergencies a bit better in the future as other country have managed. South Korea for example.

[ChipsyChopsy]

He's doing an impossible job. I think he's doing well. I honestly don't understand how banging the drum of party politics in this situation helps.

[Confusedtotally]

I personally think he is much better than Boris

[EffieIsATrinket]

I am furious about the lack of PPE but I don't particularly hold it against Matt Hancock. We have been let down by years of political complacency regarding pandemic planning. The saddest line in the Sunday Times article from last weekend was that Singapore followed the UK plan and are faring better. The actual plan was probably someone's life work and seems to have been sound. It's a shame PPE stock wasn't rotated, ventilators gradually increased, eye protection invested in and testing reagent availability maintained. Writing it all down wasn't enough.

[cathyandclare]

He was like a child listening to Andy Burnham's suggestion on Question Time that the govt may want to get private hospital facilities on board

The government were negotiating with the private hospitals well before the announcement

[1forsorrow]

I personally think he is much better than Boris Well that is setting the bar pretty low.